Bryce Canyon

We put our national parks membership to good use this past May as we climbed/hiked/rode horses through Utah! One of our stops was in Bryce Canyon National Park. The day before, we had hiked the Subway at Zion (a harrowing tale that involves being lost at night with no light source and no cell service while hanging onto the side of a cliff…a story for another day I suppose), so we were exhausted and wanted to give our calloused hands and heels a break. Daryl booked us horse-back riding tours of Bryce Canyon so we set off for a nice relaxing and romantic day.

Or so I thought.

Apparently, teetering on the back of a large mammal as it teeters hazardously on a steep and narrow path along the side of a canyon is not as relaxing as I had imagined. But let’s start from the beginning shall we…

I’m not really sure what I expected, but I definitely didn’t expect to be greeted by a large group of cowboys (boots and gallon hats and all) who beckoned me into the fenced-in area occupied by a huge herd of horses. I looked down at my white Northface jacket and at the extra-slimy post-rain mud and resigned myself to whatever messy, smelly fun was ahead.

We were informed by the cowboys that they were all named after ex-wives

Me, probably reacting to 1) the squelch of my Nikes in the mud or 2) the beautiful aroma of horse poop

Me, pretending that I don’t have a fear of heights while also guesstimating the number of bones I’d break if I fell off

The cowboys picked our horses (Edsel and Red River), gave me a big hoist onto my gentle giant, and rambled through basic instructions on how to ride a horse. My only experience with horses was with birthday party ponies as a little girl and riding around an enclosure once in college, so I probably shouldn’t have nodded as fervently as I did when he asked me if I had done this before. I leaned forward to whisper into Edsel’s ear whether she knew what she was doing. She did somewhat of a huffy snort so I took that as a good sign. As we left the corral, we trotted down a nice and easy flat path flanked by fences on both side. So far, so good.

Suddenly, we turned the corner and started our descent to the bottom of the canyon. And what what a descent it was! Some parts of the path were so steep, narrow, and slippery that the horses all but slid through the mud down the side of the canyon. There were a few hair pin turns that also had my heart racing. If Edsel decided to turn rebellious and misplace one hoof I felt like we would both go tumbling down to our demise. I whispered positive affirmations and encouragement the whole time and she did great. She must have been a seasoned tour guide because I had no idea what I was doing didn’t even try to steer her. The cowboys took us through the most beautiful parts of the canyon and taught us very questionable history (they were very silly cowboys). The views were stunning.

If the cowboy thing doesn’t pan out he could certainly pursue a career in photography

We bid farewell to the horses and cowboys, bought a souvenir picture (because we are those people), and had lunch at the cabin. The tour was fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone travel that way!

That’s all for now.

Peace, love, and safe travels,

Helen

Fort Myers Getaway

Apparently, growing up in Rochester NY did not make me any hardier when it comes to withstanding the cold. I’ve tried on multiple occasions to bring out the best Elsa in me and try to embrace the delicate snow flurries and appreciate the way the sun glistens off freshly laid snow, but something about soggy shoes, icy cold steering wheels, numb fingers and toes, and the fact that it actually hurts to breathe….well, all of that just fuels my distaste for the winter season.

That is why I booked a trip to Florida to escape the snow for a few days. Serendipitously enough, we happened to book it for the weekend that would come to be known as Snowpocalypse 2019 *insert praise hands*. We picked Fort Myers solely because it was the cheapest flight out of Detroit. We honestly had no idea what there was to do there— just wanted to escape the cold!

We had a wonderful time exploring Fort Myers, Sanibel Island, and Captiva Island, so if you’re ever in the area here are our picks:

1) Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. You can drive, bike, or take a guided tour on a bus through this gorgeous refuge. We decided to take the guided tour and we saw all sorts of Florida wildlife such as tree crabs, egrets, roseate spoonbills, an iguana, a snake (aka NOPE ROPE), among many others! I would definitely recommend doing the tour because the guide was extremely knowledgeable and pointed out a lot of astounding wildlife that we otherwise would have missed. At one point while we were walking down a boardwalk in a mangrove swamp and the guide told us to look up into the trees. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but then she pointed out a small black crab on the bark of a tree. I looked around and suddenly realized THERE WERE CRABS EVERYWHERE. It was actually pretty cool.

2) Watch the sunset on Captiva Beach. You have to time this perfectly because the sun sets a lot faster than you might expect!

3) Babcock Ranch Swamp Buggy Tour. This was my favorite wildlife tour that we did on this trip. We saw a ton of alligators, swamp pigs, friendly cows, horses, and got to pet a baby alligator!!!!!!

4) Fort Myers Beach. We happened to go on a weekend where the weather was sunny but still in the 60s, so we weren’t able to lay out in the sun and soak up the vitamin D. We still had a nice time looking for shells and playing in the white sand though!

5) Peace River Wildlife Preserve. This is a small wildlife preserve with a lot of beautiful birds— pelicans, eagles, hawks, and OWLS <3 Their mascot is Luna the albino screech owl (pictured below). They also have barred owls and burrowing owls and they were all so delightfully cute!

6) Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. Yes, we went to five wildlife preserves on this trip! We love nature and wildlife. This one was special in that it is a peaceful boardwalk through a Cypress swamp. It’s a serene park where visitors whisper as to not disturb the wildlife. We saw lots of funky looking birds, alligators, and otters (!!!).

We also went to Fort Myers Manatee park. Probably not worth the visit if you’re there for vacation— the most you see of the manatees are the very top of their heads and backs when they surface for air. Truthfully, it was a bit anticlimactic. We visited Sun Harvest Citrus which is a local market and tried many varieties of oranges and settled on Honeybells being the tastiest. We weren’t terribly impressed by the food scene in Fort Myers, but there are a lot of eclectic dining options that are tourist favorites such as the Bubble Room (we had the orange cake and it was very yummy).

Here’s a little video montage of some of the animals we saw and things we did. We didn’t film that much so it’s a little disjointed, but it shows some of the things mentioned above!

All in all, we had a wonderful time! Here’s hoping that it warms up soon here in Ohio :)

Helen